Waste Not, Want Not

Our new house is outside of the city limits. As such, we pay for private trash collection, and we don't have recycling pick up.

When we were unpacking all the boxes from the move, it became clear that the boxes that had been exposed to the flood waters had some sort of spores or were exposed to something that was causing our hives. Hubby made it a point to get rid of the boxes as soon as possible, and made several trips a week to the recycling center.

We finally are completely unpacked and have no more boxes to deal with, but we have been separating our trash, and hubby goes to the recycling center about once a week to drop off glass, cans and plastics.

Today was the first time I made the trip with him, and I was so impressed that I just have to blog about it. This recycling center is really impressive. There are large bins for glass (by color), steel cans, aluminum cans, plastics, moving boxes, cardboard and paper, magazines, junk mail, and more. There are places for chemical wastes. There is even a "re-use" center where people can drop off used clothing and household items, and others can feel free to take items that they need. The center was spotless. No mess. No smells. Everything was clean, clearly marked and user-friendly.

The most impressive thing about the center though was that the place was packed! There were a lot of people there dropping off all forms of recycle-ables! Perhaps it's a bad sign that I was so surprised. I've lived places where the city picked up recycling from the curb-side weekly, and where people still complained about having to sort trash.

Hubby tells me that he's never been to the recycling center when there wasn't a good number of people there. Even people who live in the city limits and have free pick-up of bottles and plastics brought other recycling products to the center. It really made me feel great to see so many "neighbors" taking responsibility and making the time to recycle!

I love this community, and recycling is just another reason why.